Why Cook From Scratch?

Nowadays we are lead to believe that eating processed foods is so much cheaper and easier than cooking from scratch but that's because that's what big corporations want us to believe! They know that most people are working long hours and will often opt for the easiest option that appears the cheapest. But if we stop and think about it, what's really happening here?

Lasagne Example

This lasagne here is 2.50 and feeds 1 person. It will be ready for us to eat within a mere few minutes and takes no more effort to cook it than going to the shop that we went to buy it and putting in the microwave.

The problem is, is that we have no idea what is in this lasagne (remember the horse meat thing!) the list of ingredients of mad stuff is going to be huge (nobody except the scientists know what half that stuff is), they are full of salt and sugar so that we enjoy the taste and buy it again. The portion size is small and most of it isn't real food, so we are going to feel hungry not long after eating it and fill up on snack foods, meaning that our calorie intake is going to be huge! There are also no nutritional benefits whatsoever to eating this meal and we are going to feel like crap.

The homemade lasagne is going to require more upfront cost, time and effort, especially if you are going to choose more high quality meats and lots of different veggies. BUT at the end of that lasagne you can have around 8 meal portions which can be fed to family and friends or frozen for another day when we are too tired to cook. So in the end, thecost is far lower than buying 8 frozen lasagnes, which in this example, would be 20 quid! We know exactly what ingredients went into that lasagne and have control over exactly how much sugarwe add (probably none, as why would you add sugar to as a lasagne?!), how much cheese and meat you add (none if you don't want it!) and how great the variety of veg you add. The homemade lasagne could take you around 40 mins to an hour of your time, maybe more, if you're new to cooking and have to look up what to do, but at the end of that meal you are going to have around 8 meals that you've just made yourself with no doubt, much more nutritional value and as there is actual real food in this meal, there will be no need to snack later on.

It is our choice as to whether we make the time and effort to cook from scratch and no doubt there will be times when we fail to choose the right option and just go for the the easiest (I know that I often do!) but there is also no doubt that in the long term we can save ourselves money, we can save ourselves time (by cooking and freezing) and we can make ourselves feel better in the long term.